If you don't have time for all the research, maybe contact one of your friend's sons or someone who is deep into the hardware scene and could spec something out quickly for you.

If you'd like to research, I recommend Anandtech for info. If will take time to get caught up to the latest terminology. Ultimately, the slight differences in all the benchmarks seem negligable and I choose components with the features that I want. The right processor, chipset, expansion board slots, rear panel connections, etc.

Beyond CPU, chipset, motherboard, and video card, everything else is fairly commodity. Sure RAM timing and CAS latency are important, but the minute improvement they give is not worth the research. Get some good name brand parts and you're set. And for hard drives, get the fastest name brand drives you can afford.

And don't skimp on the power supply. You might do well to buy one to replace whatever comes in the case you get (unless you get a case without one). All these components are power hungry these days. You can do a calculation to find exactly which PSU you need, but I don't know how to do that. Good luck.